UCLA alumnus Jake Heggie wins Grammy Award

UCLA alumnus Jake Heggie has won a Grammy Award for best opera recording for "Intelligence," a work he composed for the Houston Grand Opera. The honor was announced at the 68th Grammy Awards on Feb. 1 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The recording marks the first release on the Houston Grand Opera's in-house label and recognizes Heggie's music alongside the production team and performers who brought the work to life.

"Intelligence," which premiered in October 2023, tells the true story of Elizabeth Van Lew and Mary Jane Bowser, two women who ran a covert Union intelligence network from inside the Confederate White House during the Civil War. Heggie's composition underscores themes of resistance, loyalty and the forces that have shaped whose stories were recorded and whose were erased. It does this by using music to reflect the emotional stakes and inner lives of its central figures, known in opera as "character-driven" music - in this case illuminating a largely overlooked facet of U.S. history. The opera continues Heggie's long-standing commitment to storytelling through music, an approach that also informed his "Dead Man Walking," one of the most widely performed contemporary operas of the past 25 years.

Heggie recently returned to campus to deliver the 2024 commencement address for the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, marking 40 years since he earned his bachelor's degree there. His Grammy win reflects both a collaborative art form and a careerrooted in curiosity, discipline, self-discovery and human-centered storytelling - values he has long credited to his time at UCLA.

Additional Bruin wins

• Music school alum Alexander Lloyd Blake and his award-winning vocal ensemble Tonality made multiple appearances on the album "Nomadica" by composer Carla Patullo. The work, a deeply personal compilation exploring Patullo's emotions and journey to inner peace after her mother's sudden death, won best New Age-ambient or chant album at Sunday night's award ceremony. Blake is the founding artistic director of Tonality, which he formed to represent the diverse cultures and ethnicities within the Los Angeles area.

• Music school faculty members and an alum are part of two works that won the Los Angeles Philharmonic three Grammys, including best choral performance and best classical compendium for Gabriela Ortiz's "Yanga" and best classical composition for Ortiz's "Dzonot." The recording featured: Boris Allakhverdyan (principal clarinet), Chris Hanulik (principal bass), Ben Hong (associate principal cello), Varty Manouelian (violin), James Miller (associate principal trombone), and alumni David Riccobono (assistant principal timpanist and section percussionist) and KT Somero (LA Phil librarian).